AnaCardio, a Stockholm-based clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing treatments for heart failure, has completed a €62.5 million Series B financing round. The round was co-led by Novo Holdings and the Ljungström family office.
The financing also included participation from Helsinn, Pureos Bioventures, Sound Bioventures, Industrifonden, Flerie and LLD Nybohov Invest AB, alongside new investor Innovestor Life Science. AnaCardio said it has raised around €100 million to date.
Founded in 2017 and based on research from Karolinska Institutet, AnaCardio is developing novel drugs for heart failure. Professor Lars Lund, whose research underpinned the company’s scientific approach, is listed by AnaCardio as its founder.
The company’s lead program, AC01, is an oral ghrelin mimetic small molecule designed as a calcium-sensitizing contractile agent for patients with heart failure. The candidate was in-licensed from Helsinn and is being developed for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.
AnaCardio plans to use the Series B proceeds to fully fund AC01 through the Phase 2b GOAL-HF2 study in patients with chronic advanced heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. The trial is expected to enroll its first participant in the fourth quarter of 2026, with the company aiming to advance AC01 toward Phase 3 readiness by 2028.
The financing follows AnaCardio’s Phase 1b/2a GOAL-HF1 study. The company reported that patients receiving 3 mg of AC01 twice daily for 28 days recorded a 22% increase in cardiac output from baseline and a 4.8 percentage point improvement in left ventricular ejection fraction. The GOAL-HF1 results were subsequently published in The Lancet.
